Leave Ho Chi Minh City’s well-worn tourist trail and eat kimchi at a war-era hangout, drink stocking coffee at an old cafe, and take a dip in a local pool
In the second part of this series of 25 Things To Do in HCMC in 2024, I bring you five more ideas to help make your visit to Vietnam’s best city as good as it can possibly be.
By the way, if you haven’t read the first instalment yet, be sure to check it out HERE
Okay, now on with the show!
Refuel at interesting cafes
Now this city can get pretty darn hot, but thankfully there are cafes all over town that you can retreat to when the clock hits 2pm and the humidity climbs to over 90%.
But it doesn’t mean you have to hit just any old cafe!
Why not try a koi cafe where you can feed the fish that swim around you as you slurp on a sweet and syrupy concoction made with ingredients from the Mekong Delta?
Or how about pulling up a seat at a railway cafe?
Okay, the cafes by the railway line in Phu Nhuan District aren’t as famous as those in Hanoi, but at least you can still get pretty close up to the Reunification Express as it roars its way north to the capital.
And there’s even something for planespotters at aeroplane cafes that dot the perimeter of Tan Son Nhat Airport!
Or, if you just want to chill somewhere closer to town, you can step back in time at a cafe from the 70s that reminds you of just how damn cool Saigon was back in the day!
Ride a bike & take a dip in a local swimming pool
I know what you’re thinking – ride a bicycle in Ho Chi Minh City?
Trust me, it’s not that hard. Driving and riding with the traffic isn’t as hair-raising as you’d expect.
There are bike rental stations around the inner city these days where you can rent bikes for short or long periods of time and when your time’s up, you just drop it off at the nearest station.
You’ll need to download an app for payment, but all of the info is provided at each station to help guide you through it.
If cycling’s not for you, but you still want to do something active and experience a little more of everyday life here, then why not hit one of the pools owned and operated by the local People’s Committee in each district?
The People’s Committee is kind of like the local council.
There are 24 districts in Ho Chi Minh City and most of them have public pools.
In addition, often the sports precincts where you find the pools have gyms, too, in case you want to pump some iron while you’re here on holidays.
Okay, the equipment in some cases may have seen better days and the changeroom floors plenty of tinea, but at just VND30,000 (approx. US$1.20), I’d say that’s worth taking the plunge!
Eat & drink at historical locations
Taking in the city’s history need not be done by getting round in the stifling heat and shimmying your way from one display to the next with everyone else in a stuffy museum.
You can literally drink and eat it in, instead.
What do I mean by that?
There are a number of cafes and eateries around town that aren’t only old, but they have historical significance as well.
A case in point is the pho noodle soup joint which was a Viet Cong safehouse during the war and where the attack on the US Embassy was planned during the Tet Offensive back in 1968.
And there are other so-called ‘red addresses’ which were undercover VC communications stations and weapons stockpile depots during the war.
One of these happened to be opposite a South Korean military barracks whose soldiers used to frequent the cafe for the com tam (broken rice and pork chop) and kimchi.
Talk about espionage right under your nose!
I’m happy to say a version of it is still served up to this very day.
And then there’s one of Saigon’s oldest cafes that’s been serving up ‘stocking coffee’ for more than 80 years.
I still haven’t confirmed, though, if the coffee is actually filtered through ladies stockings!
Pamper yourself before the big flight home
If you’re flying out of Ho Chi Minh City after a week or two of pretty intense travel up and down the country, then you’d probably be up for a bit of pampering.
For the lads there are hundreds of barbershops to choose from in Saigon from super cheap sidewalk barbers that charge around VND40,000 for a haircut, to back-of-the-truck mobile barbers parked in the back blocks of the city somewhere, to more upmarket shops that offer wet shaves, face washes, massages and quality cuts that will set you back around VND150,000-200,000.
For the ladies, there’s no shortage of nail salons and massage joints across the city, so perhaps while hubby checks in for some new ink or a touch up on an existing tattoo at any one of the many tattoo studios around town, you can kick back and enjoy a mani-pedi that will put you in the right frame of mind to tackle those pesky check-in and immigration procedures at the airport later on.
Take a tour
Although anyone can get around by themselves in Ho Chi Minh City, take in the vibes and still have an interesting time, this will be amplified if you take some kind of organised tour.
As an example, last year I was invited to join a street food tour on the back of a motorbike.
Now, I’ve lived here for a long time and I drive a motorbike so you wouldn’t expect that I’d get a kick out of something like this, but I did!
It was awesome to have someone drive me around for a change and although I’d been to most of the locations on the tour and eaten a lot of things given to me, I still learnt heaps and enjoyed taking this tour.
The same goes for historical walking tours.
Ho Chi Minh City has changed significantly in my time, so you can imagine how much it’s changed since the end of the war and French colonial occupation before that.
So taking a guided tour will give you a deeper understanding of Ho Chi Minh City’s fascinating history.
Check out the links in the video below for a few tour guides that I can personally recommend.
Click on the image below to direct you to the full list with details
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